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Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR4) Gm 7: PHI 0, CGY 4 – Mark’d Up

Flyers

Jacob Markström wasn’t tested often but was sharp when he had to be, posting his league-leading shutout in a dominant 4-0 Flames victory to end Philadelphia’s Western Canada road trip. (Derek Leung/Getty Images)

Jacob Markström wasn’t tested often but was sharp when he had to be, posting his league-leading shutout in a dominant 4-0 Flames victory to end Philadelphia’s Western Canada road trip. (Derek Leung/Getty Images)

Flyers Fan Reaction (FFR4) Gm 7: PHI 0, CGY 4 – Mark’d Up

So… insert a fire-based pun and call it a night, right? Instead of capping their Western Canadian road trip on a high note, the Philadelphia Flyers lose, 4-0, to the Calgary Flames. Philadelphia’s second regulation defeat of the year was more of a slow burn (there it is!), with the ice gradually tilting in Calgary’s favor. The Flames eventually broke through for one in the first and three in the third, pulling away en route to their sixth straight victory.

The beginning of a season is all about finding information about your team. Your strengths, your weaknesses, where and with who everybody should be playing in the lineup — all that good stuff. Tonight, the Flyers found out what their floor looks like. Philadelphia was simply incapable of generating quality scoring chances for nearly the entire contest. That was especially in the first two periods, in which they finished with a pitiful nine shots on goal combined. Calgary dominated the contest from start to finish; the Flyers failed to win the penalty differential, shots on goal counter, or expected goals battle at both 5v5 and all strengths in any of the three periods.

It took the Flames a while to cash in on their territorial dominance, with the game remaining scoreless until nearly halfway through the second period. Calgary didn’t turn their stellar 5v5 play into a goal there until the final two minutes of the third when the outcome was already decided. The Flames took advantage of a couple of breakdowns by the usually stout Flyers penalty kill, with Rasmus Andersson and Elias Lindholm setting up Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk, respectively, for tap-ins. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s man advantage was held silent on three attempts. After special teams helped carry the Flyers to victory on Thursday, they were unable to bail them out tonight.

The Flyers looked slow and lethargic throughout the game. Yes, circumstances weren’t in their favor; it was their third game in Western Canada in four nights, Ryan Ellis didn’t play again due to injury, and the Flames came into the game red hot (there’s another one!), winners of five straight. Overall, this was still a successful road trip for the Flyers. Picking up four points out of six against teams with a combined record of 14-7-2 (.652 points percentage, a 107-point pace over 82 games) is nothing to scoff at.

What might be is Philadelphia’s overall 5-on-5 performance. Granted, seven games is a pretty small sample size. And the Flyers have matched up against some formidable opponents (Boston, Florida, Edmonton, Calgary) in that span. But it is becoming more of a concern with each passing contest that the Flyers currently sit 31st in the NHL in Corsi For% (45.58%) and 26th in Expected Goals% (45.95%). Neither figure is as bad as the Flyers’ smoke-and-mirrors start to 2020-21; the team was hovering in the 43% range. And tonight’s contest dragged those numbers down by about two percent each; Philadelphia was closer to respectable than futile in terms of play-driving before tonight’s disappointment. But this also isn’t the sleeping possession beast we saw at the start of 2019-20 when the Flyers were one of the top play-driving teams in the league out of the gates.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the Flyers can’t become that team in the future. And with the early injuries to Ellis, Kevin Hayes, and Wade Allison, plus a roster full of new faces that needs some time to gel together, a not spectacular start, at least by underlying numbers, is understandable. Those aren’t excuses; they’re legitimate reasons for the Flyers’ poor play-driving start, something the team didn’t have through their first fifteen games last season. If things don’t improve in 10-15 games, then it becomes a whole different conversation. But that can’t become a problem for at least 10-15 more games; losing sleep over it now won’t solve anything.

You can look at the Flyers’ solid 4-2-1 record and scream regression is inevitable if their underlying numbers don’t improve. That argument is technically correct, and we saw it play out last season. But it also dismisses the legitimate (if not likely) possibility of the Flyers improving their process. If the Flyers can be 4-2-1 without having fully figured their 5v5 play, imagine what it will look like if/when they resolve that issue. That version of the 2021-22 Flyers may deliver stinkers like this on occasion. But they’ll be easy to forget if the Flyers figure out how to better sustain the form they flashed against Seattle or in most of their first periods this season.

Lindies

This is one of those games where it’s tough to know how much to credit Calgary and how much to blame the Flyers. Only the Kings have averaged more shots on goal per game than the Flames, who are also top ten in Corsi and Expected Goals. The Flames haven’t even trailed since their first game of the year. With Johnny Gaudreau (who scored the 4-0 goal) a free agent at year’s end and GM Brad Treliving on his fifth head coach, it’s now or never time for the Flames. Credit to Darryl Sutter for making the Flames a tough team to play against. If Calgary keeps this up, that third Pacific Division spot might not be as wide open as many people think.

Add Sean Monahan to the list of underrated Flyers killers. The Flames center opened the scoring and assisted on Tkachuk’s 2-0 goal, recording his 14th and 15th point in 15 career games against the Flyers. Maybe he just really doesn’t want Gaudreau to come home to Philadelphia. Daily Faceoff lists Monahan as Calgary’s fourth-line center, and he skated for just under 14 minutes tonight. Performances like these should get him out of Sutter’s doghouse quickly.

Here’s a pretty clear area where the Flyers need to pick up their performance. Entering tonight, Philadelphia was dead last in the league with 43 shots on goal in the second period. They tested Jacob Markstrom just five times in tonight’s middle period, meaning they’ve averaged just 6.9 shots per game. That is the opposite of nice right there. Without a dominant first period to cushion them tonight, the bottom dropped out during the middle period, as the Flyers were outshot 16-5.

I hate to say it, but Derick Brassard’s Halloween costume of returning to prime 2C form may be coming off. His line with Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson has a 27% Expected Goals share over their last two games. Maybe that’s just an overreaction to small sample size, and Kevin Hayes still has to miss at least two more games because of his LTIR designation. I’m not necessarily trying to single Brassard out; it’s not like he was an obvious dead weight on that line in either of those games. But he also was never meant to be playing this high in the Flyers lineup; maybe these last two games are just what happens when he’s miscast for longer than a couple of weeks.

I’ve never had candy corn, but I can’t imagine it’s anywhere near a top-tier candy option. Happy Halloween, everybody!

If you’re looking for positives from tonight’s game, no need to search anywhere else than the Flyers crease. Gaudreau’s late goal put a damper on what was otherwise a spectacular performance by Carter Hart. The 23-year old, who was making his 100th NHL start, spent most of the night bailing out turnovers and failed clears by the Flyers, doing everything he could to keep the Flyers close in a game that had no business being just that. Per MoneyPuck.com, the Flyers are 6th in the NHL with 4.02 fewer goals allowed than expected. That’s a testament to the strong performances of Hart and Martin Jones to start the year. Goaltending was a big question for the Flyers entering this season; other than Hart’s second-period blip on opening night, netminding has been a strength for the Flyers in the early going.

Let’s save the best for last. Before the game, Flyers players hung out with Ryan Straschnitzki, a survivor of the Humbolt Broncos bus accident in 2018. This is what it’s really all about right here.

3 Stars

3rd: Elias Lindholm (CGY) – 2 Assists (2, 3), 21:58 TOI

2nd: Sean Monahan (CGY) – Goal (1), Assist (2), 5 Shots

1st: Jacob Markstrom (CGY) – Shutout (3) on 20 Shots, 2.05 Expected Goals Against

Next

PHI: 11/2, 7 PM vs. ARI (0-7-1, L6)

CGY: 11/2, 9 PM vs. NSH (4-4-0, W3)

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Advanced Stats are 5v5 and via Natural Stat Trick unless otherwise stated

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